Joseph Kipps
Overview Joseph Arthur Samuel Kipps was the son of Arthur and Stella Kipps from the 1983 novella 'The Woman In Black', who died at the hands of Jennet Humfrye's ghost. Early Life Joseph was born to Arthur and Stella in London, just one year following their marriage and the events at Eel Marsh House, and was their first and only child. He and his parents were visited in London by family and, on one or two occasions, the Dailys, as Mr Daily had been made his godfather. Death When Joseph was about one year old, his parents took him to a fair just outside of London. He was, by this age, walking when holding his parents' hands but not yet talking properly. Arthur and Stella paid for him to have a donkey ride, but he was scared of the donkey and instead pointed excitedly at the pony and trap. There was only space for two, and so Stella and Joseph went together whilst Arthur stayed beneath a tree and watched. The woman in black quickly appeared to him and stared at him, which scared him, and he immediately decided to collect his family as soon as they were off the trap and leave. As the pony was on its way back and had nearly reached Arthur, Jennet's ghost walked quickly as if to step in front of it. The horse was terrified and reared up, bolting back down the road. There was a horrible moment of confusion in which women and children screamed and men chased after the pony and trap, and then there was what Arthur described as a "sickening crack" as the pony hit the tree. It lay stunned but uninjured, tangled in its harness under the tree with the trap overturned. Stella was lifted out, conscious but her body fractured, and then Arthur noticed Joseph's body crumpled beneath a tree on the other side of the road. He had been thrown clear from the carriage and had hit the tree, now lying dead beneath it. This was the only death described in the book, and Joseph was the only victim of the woman in black that readers could be certain of, along with Jerome's child. In the film, many children are shown to die in many ways, but these children were not in the book, only added for the horror of the film. There was also no description in the book of how children died, only that it was every so often, whenever Jennet had been seen, and that it always appeared to be an accident. Once or twice, Mr Daily said, it had been as a result of a dreadful illness that had struck them down overnight. In the film, Joseph died at the end, at the age of four. Stella had died at the beginning whilst giving birth to him, and he had stayed with a nanny whilst Arthur was away at Crythin Gifford. In the film, Mr Daily and Arthur realised that Joseph might be the next victim and went through extreme measures to try and stop Jennet from hurting another child, but this did not work. When Arthur and Joseph were reunited at the train station, Joseph saw the woman and began walking towards the tracks and an oncoming train. Arthur ran to go and save him, but he could not, and ended up getting hit by the train as well. It ended with Joseph saying, "Who's that lady?" as he saw the ghost of Stella on the tracks, telling us that they had all died, whilst Arthur said, "That's your Mummy,". The woman in black watched them ominously and Mr Daily, horrified having just seen Arthur and Joseph's death, saw the faces of all the dead children in the windows of the passing train. Arthur and Joseph were said to be the only victims of the woman in black's from the film to not be trapped with her in the afterlife, but this is different from the book since there was no mention of being trapped in the afterlife and no apparitions at all of dead children. Arthur's death in the film is also disputed, since the original idea from the book was that Arthur had to watch and suffer and not be able to do anything, and struggle with the loss of those most important to him, just as Jennet had had to do. Appearance Joseph Kipps is not described in the books, only that he was a young, happy, bouncy infant. However, in the films, he is of normal height for a four-to-five-year-old and has dirty-blonde hair and brown eyes. He is also described as 'wise beyond his years' because he has an in depth understanding of his Father's grief and depressive state. Portrayed By Joseph is portrayed in the film by Misha Handley, Radcliffe's real life godson. He was cast because James Watkins (the director) wanted the relationship between Arthur and Joseph to feel authentic and powerful, and so he used the bond between Radcliffe and Handley to portray this, meaning that they could skip the auditioning process for the part of Joseph Kipps.